Doug Van Pelt

Norma Jean in SA

What's next in my daily routine? Oh yeah, I open the blinds in the "living room" (which is our meeting area), to light up the room for the day and to allow me to see delivery vehicles arrive if I'm walking through that area.

Last night I went to San Antonio to see Norma Jean play with Scars of Tomorrow, Unearth, and Atreyu. Earlier that day their drummer, Daniel Davison, called me up to inform me that they were unfortunately cancelling the show, as Cory had woken up real sick. The whole band had been sick for about the whole tour, which started with a 24-hour cross-country drive in a germ-spreading van. Anyway, sometime during the day the band decided to go on without Cory and perform one of its infamous sans-singer shows, with guest vocalists helping out. The club in San Antonio, the White Rabbit, was packed. In fact, it was a sold-out show. It was amazing and cool to see the crowd packed like sardines just going nuts to Norma Jean's music. Their merch guy, Wes, helped out on vocals; as did the bass player from another band (I think Scars Will Fade, but I'm not sure...I'll find out later). I meant to take some pictures, but the batteries in my camera were fried and I didn't have any replacements handy (what was that about preparation?). When their set was over, the crowd swelled and tried to clear out on the side up at the front where I was penned in, and it was crazy getting out. I was holding my small camera bag like a football, and at one point someone grabbed hold of the strap and was trying to pull it. I turned to see a girl pulling it. I wondered, 'Does she think I'm some purse-snatching creep? Or is she trying to steal my bag?' Funny. I won the tug-of-war, of course.
:?)

It was so fun see the NJ guys react to the new issue. I imagine how they must feel when their new album comes back from the manufacturer and they watch their friends get into it. That's how I felt as the guys looked at the issue. They are going to be selling copies at their shows for perhaps the next few dates (they'll run out very soon). The magazines won't be on the newsstands until next Friday at the earliest, but subscribers, I hear, are already getting their copies.

In 1 Samuel 30, we see David's army coming upon the ransacked Negev and Ziklag, taking captive women and all living there. For a moment, some of David's men mentioned stoning him for this circumstance. But David sought the Lord (good move) and was strengthened. The Lord convinced him that they could take the enemies that did this, so he took off with 400 men, as 200 others were too exhausted after days without food and water. Sure enough, they found a deserted slave, who showed them where the raiding party was (just like a movie -- and I admit I'm seeing Richard Gere in my mind as I think about David here, as a result of the King David movie...). They were able to get back all the captives and the plunder. They even shared it with the 200 who were too exhausted for the raid.

It's interesting to note that it says, "But all the evil men and trouble-makers among David's followers said...'we will not share with them the plunder...'" Wow. David had evil men and trouble-makers in his clan. That's encouraging in a reality sort of way -- knowing that God's people include some flawed and downright evil people in their midst. It puts perspective on putting up with and tolerating that kind of draining crap.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at February 16, 2005 08:08 AM